MECHANICSVILLE, Va. – Senior captain
Matthew Scarpill placed fourth in a field of 112 runners to lead the Saint Joseph's men's cross country squad to a fourth-place team finish in a field of 13 squads at the 2020-21 Atlantic 10 Championship at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville, Va. on Friday afternoon. The Hawks averaged a five-mile time of 25:07.32 with a 47-second spread en route to an 88-point performance. Seven of SJU's nine Hawks set new five-mile PRs in the race as SJU showed excellence in its forward movement throughout the meet.
Checking in with a 26th spot through the opening 1.6k, Scarpill moved up 20 spots from 1.6k to 3.4k to sit sixth about 10:32 through the race. Scarpill picked off two more runners before he hit the finish line in 24:41.3 for the top-15 finish, earning him All-Conference accolades for the second consecutive year.
And he ran the final quarter of the race with just one shoe.
"I got clipped with 2k to go, so considering that, I'm happy with getting fourth," said Scarpill. "It's a shame not knowing what could've happened, but it's a really competitive conference. I approached this race in a way where I was progressing through the race. At the 6k mark, that's where I wanted to be connected to that top five. I put myself in that position so I had the opportunity to go for the win. It's good to see there has been a lot of growth with me as a runner and that I'm able to contribute to the team at that high caliber consistently. It's good to see I'm still progressing as a runner and still have a lot to give."
Sophomore
Colin Kane (17th, 25:04.2 PR) and senior captain
Bobby Hastie (18th, 25:08.8 PR) each improved their positions steadily throughout the race to round out SJU's top-20 trio. Kane entered the race with a 26:02.3 PR and nearly bested that by an entire minute while Hastie shaved over 17 seconds off of his previous five-mile PR, which he set on the same course at the 2018 A-10 Championship... where he also placed 18th.
Breaking onto the A-10 Championship scene strong, freshman
David DelBonis turned in a 21st-place performance in 25:14.4. DelBonis steadily moved up in his positioning throughout the race, moving up 14 places from 1.6k to 3.4k, 29 places from 3.4k to 6.4k, and another nine places through the finish line. After running a 26:39.3 just two weekends ago on the same course at the Spider/Patriot Classic, DelBonis ran an entire 1:24.9 faster on Friday afternoon.
Junior
George Steinhoff rounded out SJU's scoring group with a 32nd-place finish, crossing in a collegiate-best time of 25:27.9, a PR by 27.8 seconds.
Sophomore
Matthew Coffey (68th, 26:20.3 PR) and freshman
Max Kelly (72nd, 26:23.7 PR) finished as SJU's #6 and #7 runners while senior
Brendan Price (78th, 26:35.4) and freshman
Daniel Gervino (91st, 27:01.3 PR) rounded out SJU's A-10 roster.
